


Artie and Easton Go Ice Skating, Get Really Gay

by tannoreth



Series: DND Fic [3]
Category: DDND, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: M/M, this one made me sick from how sweet it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 14:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1308589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tannoreth/pseuds/tannoreth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Artie steps onto the ice his legs immediately go out from under him. Easton skates back and kneels down next to him as Artie groans in pain. “Are you okay?!”</p><p>Artie gingerly tests his limbs to make sure they all still work. “I…guess so, if you don’t count my dignity. This is supposed to be fun, right?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artie and Easton Go Ice Skating, Get Really Gay

When Artie steps onto the ice his legs immediately go out from under him. Easton skates back and kneels down next to him as Artie groans in pain. “Are you okay?!”

Artie gingerly tests his limbs to make sure they all still work. “I…guess so, if you don’t count my dignity. This is supposed to be fun, right?”

Easton laughs and offers him a hand up. “Yeah, it is once you stop falling down.”

Grimacing at the proffered hand, Artie shakes his head. “I knew strapping blades to _my_ two left feet was going to be a bad idea.”

“No, don’t worry, I’ll teach you!” Easton can’t exactly do any fancy jumps, but he can skate backwards at least. He grabs both of Artie’s hands and hauls him upright. “Just trust me.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea - !!” Artie’s voice trails off into a squeak as Easton skates off backward, towing Artie. Artie’s knees wobble and he’s just being dragged along, but at least he’s able to keep upright with Easton holding him up. He bites his lip in concentration, trying to stay on his feet.

He looks adorable.

They’re both wearing gloves, but Easton can still feel the warmth of Artie’s hands. He catches Artie’s eye and has to turn away, glad the cold is already making their cheeks pink.

“Try to move your feet,” he suggests.

Artie closes his eyes briefly and shakes his head.

“Try it, it’s not that scary!” Easton insists.

Artie gives him a mildly annoyed look, which is as close as he ever gets to a glare. “I really don’t think this me plus skates thing is going to work out. Just let me sit on the side and drink hot chocolate and I’ll cheer you on.”

Easton slows to a stop and gives Artie his best puppy-dog eye expression, the one that can get him another hundred bucks out of anybody. Artie shakes a finger at him, then starts to slip and grabs Easton’s hand again. “Don’t try that stuff on me, I knew you when you had a gap tooth and a weird looking nose. Just bring me back to the exit and I’ll crawl over to a bench and take these horrible things off my feet.”

Sighing heavily, Easton starts to tow Artie again. “It’s not like I learned how to do it in five minutes – “ he whines, but Artie cuts him off with “Look out behind you!!”

Too late, Easton turns to see they’re about to crash into another skater. He desperately tries to stop, but only manages to grab Artie before they all tumble backward into a heap. His head bangs against the ice and his vision goes red and black.

“What the hell, man?” someone underneath him groans and Easton hastily rolls to his knees. His head is pounding and he feels sticky wetness on the side, but he looks around for Artie first.

The person he fell on grabs his arm and pulls him around. “What do you think you’re doing, skating backwards without looking-“ The man’s angry voice trails off as he gets a look at Easton. His eyes go wide and he shuts his mouth tightly.

Easton frowns at the man, not able to place him although he looks vaguely familiar. “Do I know you?”

“Uh. No. Nope. We’ve never met before.” He shakes his head too enthusiastically. “You just plowed into me-“

“Ah!” Easton suddenly remembers where he’s seen the man before. Last time they were a whole lot less bundled up, and Easton smirks at him.

He’s distracted by Artie groaning behind him, and he whirls around. “Are you hurt?!”

Artie’s _bleeding,_ the front of his face white behind the red, and Easton grabs his shoulders in horror. He can’t believe he _hurt Artie._

“Easton! You’re hurt!” Artie says, going even whiter, and Easton belatedly remembers the wetness on his own head.

That doesn’t matter. He turns back around to the former customer, glaring. “What d’you think you’re doing, hurting Artie like that?”

The man glares back. “What, is he not going to pay you now?”

“Artie isn’t – it’s not like that!! We’re not like that!” Easton clenches his fists, ready to start a fight for real until Artie places a hand on his shoulder.

“Let’s go get fixed up,” Artie says quietly, jerking his head toward the warming house. “You need to bandage up that cut.”

Easton turns his head from Artie to the other man, gritting his teeth. Artie squeezes the hand on his shoulder and Easton deflates, sighing.

“I do have _friends,_ you know,” he growls as he stands up and hauls Artie to his feet once more. The man sneers at them as they limp away, and Easton contents himself by making an obscene gesture in return.

“I wish you wouldn’t,” Artie sighs as they limp over to a bench to remove their skates.

Easton presses his lips together, face burning with shame. Of course theology student Artie knows what he does for a living, and it’s legal and there’s nothing _wrong_ with it, but…He feels weird when Artie gets reminded like that. Not that Artie’s ever said he minds, but Easton really hates the idea that someone could mistake Artie for one of his customers….

Artie removes his skates and stands up, then wobbles. Alarmed, Easton grabs him again before he can fall.

“I’m okay, just…a little lightheaded.” Artie smiles at him, but winces when his split lip cracks again.

Easton bends down and picks Artie up fully, ignoring Artie’s cry of protest, and carries him into the warming house. “Do you have any bandages?” he demands of the girl working the front desk.

Her eyes widen and she digs out a first aid kit from beneath the desk. “Do you need me to call an ambulance?” she demands, leaning over the desk as Easton strides past her. “Can he walk?”

“We’re okay!” Artie calls back, then hisses to Easton, “Put me down! You’re making everyone look at us!”

Easton carefully sets him down on a bench in the corner of the warming house, admittedly feeling a little dizzy himself.

“It’s just a bloody nose,” Artie says, gingerly touching his nose. “I don’t think it’s broken.”

“And your mouth,” Easton points out, pulling out a package of wet wipes to clean off Artie’s face.

“I’m more worried about you, you’ve got a cut on your head.” Artie frowns as Easton tries to wipe his face and takes the wipe from him. He cleans the blood from his nose and mouth, and Easton has to admit he looks a lot better. He’s not even bleeding anymore.

“Are you sure you don’t need stitches? What if you have a concussion?” Artie dabs at the side of Easton’s head and Easton winces.

“I’m okay,” he says, then grimaces as speaking makes his head throb.

“You look terrible!”  Artie pushes at his shoulders. “Lay down on the bench until I can clean this off and see how bad it is.”

Obediently, Easton lies down and allows Artie to clean off the cut. He blinks sadly up at Artie’s pink and white face. There’s melting snow in his hair. “I’m sorry this turned out so crappy.”

Artie gives him a rueful little grin. “I told you I wouldn’t be any good at ice skating.”

Easton reaches up to ruffle the snow out of Artie’s hair, then rests his hand on Artie’s head. “But I feel so bad you got hurt! I shouldn’t have made you do something you said you’d be bad at – skating is dangerous, people get hurt doing it a lot – “

“It’s fine.” Artie leans forward to rest his forehead against Easton’s briefly. “I wanted to come have fun with you, I’m sorry that it got ruined.”

Easton feels his heartrate speed up. Impulsively, he puts his hand to the side of Artie’s face when Artie starts to move away. This might not be the best timing, on the bench of a warming house with both of them bruised up, but…

“Easton?” Artie says, his pink cheeks getting a little pinker.

Easton swallows hard and clenches the hand not on Artie’s face. This might not be the best timing, but is there really going to be any better time? He leans up slightly and kisses Artie on the cheek.

“I love you,” he says.

“Like, not in a friend way,” he says.

“What?” says Artie, blinking down at him.

Easton grimaces. His heart pounds so hard he’s afraid it might break a rib, and his head throbs in unison. He finds he can’t quite get enough air. Nothing he’s ever had to do at work was ever this difficult or embarrassing. “Don’t make me say it again,” he mutters.

Artie’s eyes go wide and he sits back. Easton allows his hand to fall from Artie’s cheek, his face burning, and he turns away so he doesn’t have to look at Artie. Honestly, he doesn’t even know if Artie is gay, since Artie never seems to be dating anyone. Plus, Artie is religious, and don’t some religions say that being gay is bad? A thought occurs to him – what if Artie doesn’t _want_ to date anyone?! _–_ and he feels his stomach twist in horror before remembering that even if Artie does theoretically want to date people, he’s never shown any indication of wanting to date Easton. This thought only makes his stomach twist more. He feels like he’s choking.

“Easton, um,” Artie begins, and then coughs to clear his throat. “I’ve, um, never really thought about you that way before.”

He begins to dab at the cut on Easton’s head again, which is slightly reassuring. At least he didn’t totally scare Artie off.

But still – “Sorry,” Easton says miserably. “I didn’t mean to – I probably made everything really awkward now, didn’t I? Are you super weirded out?”

Artie exhales and lets out a little laugh. “I didn’t say that. I’ve just never - I don’t usually think about or do that stuff. And you don’t really _go out with_ people, at least not on normal dates, so I never even thought – I mean, you’re touchy-feely with everyone, so I never got any special vibes from you…”

“Yeah, but…” Easton swallows hard. “That guy earlier, he thought you were a customer, and I don’t – I mean, that’s the last thing I want people to think about us, that you’re _paying_ me for something, I know you’re not like that, but – “ He’s screwing this up, but he can’t figure out how to say what he means to say. “And I’m okay with us being friends, and I don’t want – It’s not like I want you to do. You know. Stuff like I do at work. I mean, I’d be _okay_ with us doing that, but it seems like you’re not really into that, and that’s okay with me too, but I’m really okay with us being just friends, but if you. I don’t know. Wanted to be something else. Not not-friends, but something other than friends, that would be really – “

Artie leans forward and kisses him on the mouth. After a moment Artie says “Ow,” and pulls away, touching his split lip, but Easton was too shocked to respond anyway. A warm tingly feeling bubbles up in his chest. His throbbing headache no longer seems to matter.

“So. Does that mean you. You want to.” Easton gives Artie a pleading look. “Do you want to like. Date. Or something.”

Artie laughs and looks around quickly, then rests his forehead against Easton’s again. “I mean, we’re pretty much already dating? Like, isn’t going ice skating together something people do on dates? And I guess…well, I can’t imagine dating anybody else, and. Um. Well, I’m not really that interested in sex stuff, but you said we don’t have to do that, and I wouldn’t mind cuddling and holding hands and all that romantic stuff. Doing that with you.”

The warm tingling in Easton’s chest spreads all the way to his fingers and toes. He sits up and wraps Artie in an enthusiastic hug. This is the best day of his life. He never expected Artie to want him back, he’s so unbelievably happy, he’s going to cry from happiness, he –

He’s going to pass out.

His vision goes black around the edges and he slumps into Artie’s lap, struggling not to throw up. Artie yells with alarm. “Easton!”

Easton does his best to smile up at Artie, but Artie just grabs his face and stares intently at him. “Your pupils are dilated and you’ve got a huge bump on your head. I think you have a concussion! We need to go to a doctor.”

“Okay,” Easton says blissfully. Where ever Artie wants to go is fine with him.

He doesn’t realize he’s said that last part out loud until Artie rolls his eyes before hauling him upright. “Yeah, and right now I want to go get medical attention. Let’s get you to the car.”

He leans on Artie heavily as they limp out of the warming house. The girl behind the desk asks again if she should call someone, but Artie waves her off, saying he can take care of Easton. Easton smiles at her serenely. Artie’s going to take care of him. It’s all going to be okay.

They make it out to the car, and Artie opens the passenger side door for him. Easton crawls in but first ducks down to kiss Artie on the cheek one more time. Artie goes, “Hmph!” and twists his mouth at Easton, but he turns pink as he shuts the door.

Easton leans back in the seat, still smiling. Artie wants to take him to the doctor. Artie’s going to take care of him. Artie likes him back. It’s all going to be okay.


End file.
